


[Meta] The Eating Habits of Archangels and Other Fierce Creatures

by lysanatt



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gabriel meta, Meta
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-10-06
Packaged: 2017-12-27 08:18:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/976543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lysanatt/pseuds/lysanatt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Tall Tales of Gabriel's eating habits. Meta on Gabriel and his food consumption.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Eating Habits of Archangels and Other Fierce Creatures: Tall Tales

**The Eating Habits of Archangels and Other Fierce Creatures**

At some point trickster and archangel Gabriel turned into a candy-eating cherub. All power to those who like candy-eating cherubs, I support their right to write any character the way they like them, but the candy-eating fics got so prevalent that I wanted to find out exactly how much support of that interpretation the canon texts actually give. In this, I'm going to look into the first episode, Tall Tales, in which we meet Gabriel long before he reveals himself as the first of the archangels, a fierce warrior, the messenger of God. 

But let us start in an entirely different part of mythology, the Norse:

Powerful on their own, Tricksters are depending on food, having high metabolisms. For Gabriel, being -- or impersonating -- Loki, food definitely means _something_ :

_Aldrig vilde_  
 _Øl du smage,_  
 _når ej for os begge det bares._  


'Never did you want to taste beer when we weren't both served,' Loki says in _Lokasenna_ , a part of the _Older Edda_. As Loki, Gabriel would have lived on the diet of Valhalla: boar, mead, berries, apples, cabbage, beets, cheese, pork, milk and similar food, fitting for the gods of Valhalla. Eating and drinking together was an important part of social interaction in Valhalla, just as several edible items had mythological importance: Idun's apples; Særimner, the boar which provides meat for the Einherjar; Tandgrisner og Tandgnost, the two goats that are revived by Thor every morning after being used as food for dinner. 

Apart from being a trickster, Gabriel, as Loki, has appeared as a mare, a seal and a salmon, further adding a variety of foodstuff to his rather varied menu: grass, hay, fish and seaweed.

This diet is -- to say it mildly -- healthy, nutritious and a far throw from the diet of artificially flavored candy that Gabriel seems to like in some fanfic.

Let us then look at what Gabriel eats when he wants to have fun: At the table he creates himself he has put various cakes, tortes, biscuits and cookies. These are, however, not there in abundance, not compared to the amount of various fruits: Gabriel has created raspberries, grapes and strawberries, too. He seems very fond of grapes, judging from the number of them. Everything is spiced up with two lovely ladies who feed Gabriel the small amount he _actually_ eats: a mouthful of whipped cream and a bite of some type of chocolate eclair (TT 27:45).

Does that mean that Gabriel consumed the entire table, legs and all, off-screen? Probably not, but that's merely speculation. Gabriel tells Dean later that he had a "lots of sex" that night, (TT 28:30) and it might to the casual viewer seem as if he used the cakes and fruits for the sake of seduction (and to feed his dog an appallingly non-dog-friendly meal!), not to stock up on "glycogen and triglycerides in the adipocytes, the main fat body cells".

To get back to Sam and Dean: Looking for leads, Sam and Dean are going through every bit of Gabriel's property and storage they can get their hands on. They find nothing. Dean admits at 26:07 when he finds the Impala with trickster-flattened tires: "Yeah, I found something. Just not in the sewer." No wrappers, no chocolate, no candy, no nothing. Sam? He gets the exact same result: Zilch, nothing, zero, nada. "I didn't find any candy bars or sugar. Not even Equal," Sam says. (TT 29:44).

So, until now? Not a clue, not a candy, not anything. 

I'm not trying to ignore it, or pretend that Gabriel doesn't eat candy and cakes and sweets, he does. Just not in the amounts that some parts of fandom make it look like. Let's up and at it, then: 

First of all the idea that Gabriel eats inordinate amounts of food probably stems from a comment from Dean: "Bobby mentioned that these suckers have a metabolism like an insect. All, right, a real sweet tooth," Dean tells us (Tall Tales 29:39). Obviously Bobby is a clever guy, but he doesn't know that much about insect metabolisms, or archangel metabolisms, for that matter. Dean, on the other hand, should know about food and the way it affects the human body. Let's look for a minute on the consumption of food in Tall Tales:

 **Dean, actively eating/drinking** :  
Fries with some kind of sauce/meat. (TT 05:10)  
3 shots of Purple Nurples (TT8:19) (This is, however, seen from Sam's point of view; Dean admits drinking the PNs, though.)  
Dean steals candy from the dead professor's office. (TT 11:49)  
Undisclosed number of pieces - enough to fill his mouth (TT 12:02, Sam's pov)  
Beer, on several occasions.

 **Sam, actively eating** :  
Soda, fast food (TT 05:10)

 **Dean and Sam, leftovers, empty bowls etc** :  
Chinese take away boxes, several empty boxes (7 more on top of what they are actively eating from. (TT 05:57)  
Empty pizza boxes (TT 13:13)

 **Gabriel** :  
Drinking wine/champagne (from flute). Takes a mouthful of whipped cream, and a bite of some kind of cake. (TT 27:45)  
Gabe takes a bit of a chocolate bar, one more just before he is stabbed. (TT 36:06 and 37:20)

If we didn't know better, we should suspect Dean of being the trickster. But of course we do know, just as we know now that Gabriel is not just a trickster. If he had been a trickster solely, it had mattered that, 

_[t]he fat body plays major roles in the life of insects. It is a dynamic tissue involved in multiple metabolic functions. One of these functions is to store and release energy in response to the energy demands of the insect. Insects store energy reserves in the form of glycogen and triglycerides in the adipocytes, the main fat body cell. Insect adipocytes can store a great amount of lipid reserves as cytoplasmic lipid droplets. Lipid metabolism is essential for growth and reproduction and provides energy needed during extended nonfeeding periods_ (Arrese EL, and Soulages JL.: "Insect fat body: energy, metabolism, and regulation" in Annual Review of Entomology, 2010)

Only Gabriel is not depending on lipid reserves. He does not need to eat, he does not need to drink, he does not need extra energy. He's a bleeding archangel, for fucks sake (yes, that was my academic assessment!). All right, so we do not know that, not yet. But let us take that into consideration when we sum up:

* Gabriel is, or is impersonating, Loki, Norse god with healthy eating habits.  
* Since Gabriel does not need to consume food, nothing he eats is eaten without purpose.  
* Purposes might be: seduction, a sweet tooth, as false leads, or merely because Gabriel obviously enjoys the pleasures of human life.  
* At no point in Tall Tales do we see Gabriel over-indulge. At no point do we see him eat any kind of candy which isn't chocolate, and he only eats a little.

What can be deducted from the above: Gabriel likes the good things in life - including chocolate. He does not eat it all the time, he does not leave wrappers all over the place and he does not eat more than any ordinary human would do. He never touches kiddie-stuff: lollipops and other kinds of kid candy. His choice is quite mature — which is sensible, seeing that the guy apparently is billions of years old.

In my opinion, the two instances of Gabriel consuming food have other reasons than to satisfy an overactive metabolism that doesn't exist in him. The first time, the cakes and the fruits, is a social occasion: Gabriel is having fun with his dog and his home-made ladies. The second instance? Gabriel knows that Sam and Dean know that he's a trickster, or that they think he is. Seeing that he actually tries to trick them into believing he dies because of the staking, we might assume here, without being too far out, that Gabriel is creating a small piece of reality for the Winchesters to chew on. He wants them to continue to believe that he's a trickster, and by eating a bit of a very large plate of chocolate in their presence, he adds to the illusion. 

It can be argued that the series' writers hadn't yet decided that the Trickster is Gabriel the Archangel, but that is not necessarily how textual/literary criticism works. Looking at all four Gabriel-episodes as a whole, we choose as readers/viewers to interpret based on the information we can extract, not based on the intent of the sender/writer. No matter what, it does not change the fact that Gabriel in this first episode is nowhere near being a candy-indulging cupid. In comparison, even though we see more of Dean than of Gabriel, judging from the amount of food consumed and candy stolen, we could just as well state that Dean Winchester is a trickster, too.

Next Sunday: Mystery Spot and the Mystery about the Disappearing Strawberry Syrup.


	2. The Mystery Spot and the Disappearing Strawberry Syrup, or the Continued Debunking of Gabriel as a Candy-Crushing Cupid

**The Mystery Spot and the Disappearing Strawberry Syrup, or the Continued Debunking of Gabriel as a Candy-Crushing Cupid**

In Mystery Spot (MS) Gabriel impersonates Ed Coleman, a ad-space-selling businessman-type. Like all the other people in the diner, Ed "Gabriel" Coleman appears every day, wearing the same clothes, eating and doing the same things they did yesterday's Tuesday.

Before we go in-depth, analysing Gabriel's eating habits, let's look at the conditions he's working under. In this episode it matters little whether Gabriel is Gabriel the Archangel, Gabriel the Trickster or Gabriel the demi-god. He is using powers that tricksters are known to possess, and that is enough. The most important powers are: bending time, erasing memories (in Dean), creating reality and objects out of nothing. There is little doubt that Gabriel is staying, watching the boys. He tells Sam later that "I made you the second you hit town." (MS 25:42) Gabriel is having fun, and he's inclined to let the fun go on "forever" (MS 26:00), although he admits a few seconds later that he's "only playing around". Basically, we're dealing with a close-to omniscient, omnipotent Gabriel who can do whatever he damned well likes with reality, because he's got teh POWAH!

The only two beings in the MS episode who are aware of the ongoing time loop are Gabriel and Sam. Whether it is the loop itself or Gabriel who erase people's memories, nobody but the two remembers anything but the current Tuesday. This conclusion leads us to a conclusion about Gabriel's eating habits as shown in this episode: Gabriel chooses to adhere to the rules he has set up for everybody else. At 26:34 he tells Sam, "If I'm lying, you know where to find me. Having pancakes at the diner." Implicit in this statement is that he can step out of the reality, do what he wants, he's not obliged to do anything.

Basically, since Gabriel rules reality, he can eat whatever he wants, but he doesn't, except once. Does that mean that Gabriel doesn't care what he eats? Perhaps. As I discussed in Part 1, angels don't have to eat, but Norse gods like to. However, as argued in Part 1, Gabriel uses his food-intake to leave false leads, and this is definitely what he is doing here as well. If he was truly a trickster, he would not have the freedom of choice: he would have to eat large amounts of food to keep his metabolism happy. Again, Gabriel is an angel, and any metabolism he might have is not depending on food, so every time he eats it is _by choice_.

In fact, if we make a comparison similar to the one done in Part 1, we'll see that Dean is the one who eats indiscriminately. Gabriel, however, shows a very moderate interest in food.

 **Dean, actively eating** :  
02:14 Dean: Tuesday Special: Pig 'n a Poke (pancake and pork-rolls, oranges, perhaps coleslaw on the side?), toast, hash browns), bacon and coffee, Sam gets coffee and short stack.  
07:17 Dean: Same, Sam: nothing.  
16:57: Dean orders sausages instead of bacon.  
17:45: Dean and Sam, both eating tacos.

On and on we go, 18:54, 23:00, 23:58... Rinse, repeat. Dean never enters the diner without eating pig 'n a poke and a side order.

 **Dean, complaining about not getting food** :  
27:30: Dean complains that he's getting, "No breakfast?"  
36:56: "No Breakfast?", looking at Sam as if he has suggested something obscene.

 **Sam, actively eating** :  
With Dean, mentioned above: three times.  
29:46: Sam alone: he's having peas, carrots, corn, water, bun of some kind, perhaps chicken (white meat), cucumber, really healthy meal.

 **Gabriel actively eating (or not)** :  
01:59: Ed "Gabriel" Coleman is present at the diner, not clear what he's eating.  
07:08: Coffee, a plate on the side.  
08:10: Reading paper, not eating.  
11:43: Reading paper, not eating.  
16:57: Ed "Gabriel" Coleman is actually missing in this shot, despite the camera panning over his seat. Ooops, boys.  
18:54: Day 100 - Drinking coffee, eating. On his plate lies what look like pancakes, maple syrup on the side. Reading paper.  
23:00: Day 101 - Eating. Ed "Gabriel" Coleman leaves, leftover pancake, orange, a small amount of strawberry syrup, something green on the side that looks like parsley.  
23: 58 Day 102 - Back to same maple syrup. Eating pancakes, reading paper.

What is noteworthy is that Ed "Gabriel" Coleman never shows much interest in his food. Most of his time is used on drinking coffee and reading the paper (and spying on the boys, presumably). He doesn't stuff himself, he doesn't binge, he doesn't eat anything especially sweet, he doesn't drain the syrup bottle, he doesn't order inordinate amounts of sugary stuff. Hell, he doesn't even order second helpings. He's basically behaving like an ordinary guy, enjoying his short stack with a bit of syrup on top. Compared to Dean, Gabriel is modest in his habits whereas Dean indulges in grease and fat, adding side orders to his original order. 

It can be discussed whether Gabriel's slip with the syrup is intentional. If not, he could easily have erased the day, wiped Sam's memory of seeing it, or created another fun day of murder and mayhem. So it leaves us with two scenarios: Gabriel underestimated Sam's deductive abilities, or it was, in fact, intentional. Gabriel knows how smart Sam is, he comments on it later on, around 34:20. So... intentional? Maybe Gabe's bored, perhaps, with the menu? Good question. Or maybe he is out to drop another false lead: "Oh, lookie here, Samsquatch, here's the Trickster for you, let's talk about your lesson, shall we? And let's forget about how I'm talking about the bad guys and other angelic shit, because look at me, waving my trickster badge!"

Again, Gabriel uses food to lead Sam and Dean in a particular direction. Arguing that Gabriel eats sugary stuff because he needs/loves/depends on it on the base of this episode is a far shot from reality. One could just as easily argue that reading the paper is a life-supporting action for archangels or tricksters - we do see Gabriel read the delightful "Alien Abduction" article in Tall Tales and he uses more time reading the daily paper in MS than he does eating.

Or we could argue that Dean is a trickster too. He's the only one that dies from choking on sausages because he wants it so badly. Or maybe that goes in a fanfic? With Cas. And his sausage. :)

Next ~~Monday~~ Sunday: Changing Channels: Here We Go With the Lolli-Poop.


	3. The Smell of the Lollipoop

Changing Channels is the episode that convinced me in the first place that Gabriel uses food to create false leads, and that he actually doesn't have that much of sweet tooth at all. I'll get to that later, starting with a look at what kind of food and candy Gabriel and the boys bring to the table during _Changing Channels_. Compared to the two previous Gabriel-episodes, neither Gabriel, nor the boys use much time eating; they're too busy playing games. Basically a list of what's eaten on screen in the episode is very, very short as it consists of one item: a tech guy eats a lollipop. 

Let's get back to that one later.

Okay, let's open the fridge, literally. In _Changing Channels_ we immediately run into Gabriel's culinary creation: a gigantic sandwich, made for Dean, or rather for Dean's part in the Sun'n Sands Motel soap (01:15). The sandwich is a gigantic pile of food stuff: cheddar, other kinds of cheese, salad, salami, roast beef, tomatoes, ham and/or turkey and white toast (01:15). The Gabriel-created fridge on the set has a wide assortment of condiments: hot sauce, mustard, ketchup, canned cheese, olives, iceberg and romaine salad, pickled cucumbers, Smeat, chicken or turkey. Beer too. It should be noted that this assortment caters more to Sam's tastes than to Dean's, not that it necessarily means anything significant. Yes, I ship it too. 

At some point during the Sun'n Sands show Sam holds a cup of coffee (02:25), and Sam and Dean are shown in the process of having burgers, fries and beers, however not actively eating those (3:04). The only other time a food item is mentioned is in _Dr Sexy M.D._ where Sam demands "a fifth of whiskey" (16:00) and in _Nutcracker_ , the Japanese game show, where a bag of shrimp chips are advertised as being nutritious and slimming (18:56). 

As for Gabriel, he doesn't eat or drink anything at all during the entire episode. He doesn't need to.

Basically food doesn't have that much of a significance in this episode; it merely functions as a joke (gigantic sandwich, Nutcracker) or a part of ordinary, daily things to do. 

But let's return to Sam and Dean's real world for a moment, the one outside the reality that Gabriel has created. Sam and Dean are investigating the strange murders in a small town, and it becomes evident that they are dealing with "the Trickster" (07:00). "I found something else at the crime scene. Candy wrappers. Lots of them," Sam says, throwing four wrappers on the table in front of Dean (06:50). As I mentioned before, I am convinced that Gabriel, being an angel and not a trickster, doesn't have that much of a sweet tooth. Here it's clear that he uses the entire "tricksters have sweet tooths" set up to lead Sam and Dean into his trap. Why?

Let me tell you.

During the Gabriel-as-Dr-Sexy scene, Gabriel admits that, "I heard you two yahoos were in town, how could I resist?" (12:43). Gabriel admits, too, that he'd been fiddling with the police scanner, deliberately leading them into his trap. So Gabriel has known from the moment Sam and Dean arrived; he has been screwing with them to make them end up in TV land. Therefore it makes sense to suggest that those candy wrappers are a part of the diversion.

Lending credibility to this suggestion is the (in)famous lollipop that Gabriel _doesn't_ eat. In fact it is one of Gabriel's creations, the nameless crime show tech, who eats it. "Check on sweet tooth over there," Dean says immediately, indicating that, oh, here's the number one sign that we're dealing with a trickster (26:56).  
Starting at 26:56, going on to 28:29, more than one and a half minute of precious screen time, the tech is sucking the lollipop, pointing with it, almost sticking it into the victim's bleeding stomach. It can in no way be shouted from rooftops any higher: "Look at me, I'm the damned Trickster, guys!" Spotlights are on the tech.

Of course it turns out to be a diversion as well. Gabriel has disguised himself as a police officer, watching the boys make fools of themselves. But this diversion _is_ significant. We know that everything at the crime scene is created and staged by Gabriel, which means that this deliberate use of one of his actors and the lollipop does confirm that Gabriel indeed uses candy to direct attention to — and give credibility to — his own disguise as the Trickster. Gabriel leaves a candy trail, and that is what he wants people to see, because those wrappers and the candy are an important part of the disguise that makes up Gabriel's "personal witness protection". Even caught in a circle of holy oil, he insists: "I am the Trickster," he tells Dean (32:10), a second before his disguise is torn apart.

To conclude: nothing in this episode supports the idea that Gabriel is particularly fond of candy. He uses it to lead Sam and Dean the way he wants them, but we never see him eat any candy; he obviously isn't addicted to it in any way. It can be argued that Gabriel has eaten the four pieces of candy whose wrappers that Sam has found, but that is merely speculation. Again, even with the four pieces, it is a far stretch to characterize Gabriel as sugar-addicted in any way. He is still an angel, he doesn't have a metabolism, he _can't_ be sugar-addicted. 

The lollipop? If Gabriel had liked them so much, he'd surely have created two.


End file.
